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One
Student's Story
with Dawn Frost
Background
/ The Challenge /
How Lab Works / Hiring Tutors /
Training Tutors / Evaluation / Student's
Story /
Certification, Templates & Resources
"I wouldn't be here for my sophomore year if it weren't for
Student Support Services and the tutoring program. It's a simple as
that," says Dawn Frost, sophomore nursing student at Lewis-Clark
State College, and single mother of boys aged 7, 9 and 12. She daily
commutes 45 miles one way from Orofino to Lewiston.
The daughter of a logger,
Frost's mom died when she was only 12. She credits her dad for imbedding
the idea that "whatever has to be done can be done."
18 years
since my last schooling
It has been 18 years since
Frost graduated from high school. "I decided to return to school, in
part, to be an example to my sons, to show them by example," says
Frost. "But frankly, I was overwhelmed when I got here. I was awful
in math. I was computer illiterate. I looked ahead at the costs, and I
couldn't foresee how I could meet all these challenges.
"I came unglued in
Margie's (McLaughlin) office one of my first days here. Lots of tears.
Margie is so kind and so calm. She said, 'Okay. We are going to break this
down into little steps. We are going to do one thing at a time and
keep building.' She helped me sort it out."
Other Crises, like "Getting
Chemistry"
Other crises came. There
were more tears and frustration at not being able to "get"
chemistry. But instead of going home after one distressing class, she went
to the tutoring lab where, among students who are now friends, she learned
they also didn't "get it." A special tutoring
class was formed so chemistry students meet regularly, one hour three
times a week, with Susan Devlin, who fills in gaps of understanding.
"It helps me to
dissect it down and find the components," says Frost who estimates
she spends eight to ten hours a week in the tutoring lab, about two hours
of that time with tutors.
We are
definitely a community.
Big time!
"When you are in an
SSS Learning Community and then you come often to the tutoring lab, you
get to know the other students and their struggles. We are definitely a
community, big time! You see the same people over and over. I need these
people to help me make decisions, to give me advice and suggest options,
to pat me on the back, to encourage me. I depend on them."
Frost has worked with many
of the tutors and finds them "really great. They all have their
specialties."
For Frost, the bottom line
is that Student Support Services has "given me the understanding of
why I'm here. I'm building a life for myself that will provide a
retirement for me. I'm also, by example, a stepping stone for my children."
Now Frost is comfortable at the computer, and she is conquering math.
Skyrocketing confidence
"Being here, my confidence has skyrocketed. I had no idea I'd feel
this confident in myself. Will it take four years to get where I want to
go? Six years? Whatever, it is okay. I accept that it is work. But the
work will pay off. "
Frost says her sons have
been wonderfully supportive, but it isn't without its poignant moments.
"The first month I was
in school my 6-year-old came to me with his stuffed animal that had a hole
in it and said, 'Mom, you promised you'd sew it for me.' It hurt to have
to say, 'I can't do it right now'….I told Margie I was feeling bad, and
she said, 'It's okay to feel that way.' I was ready to forget the whole
thing. But she helped me see how it was do-able."
" Student Support
Services made me grow up and be responsible for my learning and my future.
Yes, it's hard work, and will continue to be hard work. My new attitude
is, I don't know how I'm going to do it. But I'm going to do it." And
none of her tutor friends or peers doubts that for one minute.
Previous
Next:
Certification, Templates & Resources
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Dawn Frost, LCSC
Success Story
"Being here,
my confidence has skyrocketed. I had no idea I'd feel this confident in
myself."
"Student
Support Services made me grow up and be responsible for my learning and my
future."
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